We thought it was time to take it easy today!

After breakfast we drove just 10 minutes to a place called Newlands Corner. A picnic spot on top of a hill that overlooks the North Downs.

It seems that every place in Britain lays claim to something in its past to make it famous. Newland Corner’s claim to fame is that it is the place that Agatha Christie (the crime writer) ditched her car, and then went missing for a while in the 1930s. And was later found at a seaside town, having had some sort of emotional breakdown.

We were going for a “ramble”. But I always find it hard to find the start of a walk. Despite maps and signposts. There’s always lots of different paths, most of them criss-crossing and going in different directions. And none of them bearing any resemblance to the map or instructions I have. Fortunately through a combination of asking other people, and Philip finally figuring out what the map really says, we took off.

A cloudy day, and a little bit warm. We first walked across the top of the hills, looking over the rolling hills of the Downs. With summer marching on, some of the taller grasses are starting to go to seed and turn yellow and brown. But the dark bands of trees are still green, green, green.

Lots of wildflowers. The only ones I regularly recognise are dandelions! Some of them are smaller versions of flowers I carefully cultivated while living in Melbourne. But far too dainty to cope in Perth. So I’ll bore you with a couple of photos I’ve taken of them.

 

We walked on paths through dark woodlands. And woodlands with lots more light. Came across a square cement bunker-looking building in the woods with small holes. We decided it was a remnant leftover from World War 2. Later saw another one in a distant field.

Kept walking till we got to our destination. A church on top of a tall hill called St Martha On The Hill. With lop-sided gravestones all around it. And clear views across the distant hills.

Farmlands around. Some of the fields yellow with wheat or oats, either harvested or close to harvest. We sat up there to catch our breath and drink our water and eat our nuts.

 

To get back to Newlands Corner we had to walk through a farmyard and then the path took us through his fields.

Wheat on one side and oats on the other.

Two hours later we were back at Newlands Corner and bought a very ordinary lunch at the cafe there and ate it sitting in the shade of a huge old lichened oak tree.  We appreciated the gentle breeze blowing. Watched family groups and their dogs playing and laughing nearby. (The children not the dogs were laughting!)  

And that was the most strenuous thing we did all day! We googled some nearby op shops to buy some summer clothes for Philip. Drove there to get him a short sleeved shirt and found some jeans that fitted him. And I’ve cut the legs of the jeans shorter, to turn them into shorts for him.

We ate our tea tonight, sitting at the table out in the garden.  Isn’t that what you do when you’re in England on a summer’s evening? Eat your tea out in the garden in the evening?

I later took my book out to read in the garden too. The sweet scent of the buddleia heavy in the air. Listening to the pigeons.  I’ve never seen such big fat pigeons. Hearing the distant roar of traffic. And the planes flying high overhead.

Tomorrow we hit the road again! Tracing the Ancestors. We’re aiming to drive through Dorset, Somerset and Cornwall in the next two days. And end up in Derby on Wednesday night. Phew! Just as well we took it easy today.